“As a fee-only
financial planner, I have a fiduciary responsibility to my clients to
only recommend investments that are suitable to their specific
investment plan and risk profile. While my clients’ risk tolerances
run the gamut from conservative to aggressive, Bitcoin, with its
short history, volatile price movements, and lack of intrinsic value
is hard to ever recommend as an investment. While one could make the
case for an investment in currencies (due to their diversification
benefits), a purchase of Bitcoin would be pure speculation, akin to
penny stocks.”

Bill Gates - Founder of Microsoft

“Bitcoin is an exciting new technology. For our
Foundation work we are doing digital currency to help the poor get banking
services. We don't use Bitcoin specifically for two reasons. One is that the
poor shouldn't have a currency whose value goes up and down a lot compared to
their local currency. Second is that if a mistake is made in who you pay then
you need to be able to reverse it so anonymity wouldn't work.”

“No
one really knows who is really behind Bitcoins, as the creator is just a
pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. That in itself should be a huge red flag. I would
certainly not trust my life savings to some mysterious computer algorithm
created by shadowy anonymous characters in a system that attracts underworld
types.”

“Get into Bitcoin or another digital currency if you want.
I hope it makes you rich. But don't kid yourself this is
anything more than speculation for a quick buck.
The messianic stuff will go out the window once it collapses.
There are lots of things in the real economy to invest in too.
The big advantage of Bitcoin as ‘stateless
money’ is that when it collapses, the government won't have to bail it out.”

Dr. Stephen Kinsella - Senior lecturer in economics at the University Of Limerick's Kemmy Business School-- source --

“All
of that volatility comes on an average Bitcoin volume of something like
20,000 per day. If I put in an order for $15,000 worth of Bitcoin right now,
I’m pretty sure I could move the market between 5 percent and 10 percent to
the upside. It’s probably even worse to the downside. Call me a skeptic, but
with that kind of easy price manipulation, I’m not quite ready to denominate
my paycheck in Bitcoins yet.”

“The
biggest challenges that Bitcoin currently faces are flow of funds, a lack of
market makers, and outsized exchange rate risk. It's nearly impossible to
move USD in and out of the largest trading platform (MtGox) and, as a result,
there are very few significant market makers participating in the exchange.
Absent reliable providers of a liquid marketplace, volatility will remain
high. This presents major difficulties for businesses and individuals that
might otherwise accept Bitcoin as payment for goods and service in
forecasting Bitcoin exchange rate risk. Bitcoin can't be a viable long-term
currency unless, and until, it is more broadly accepted as an exchange medium
for items of real value (i.e. these goods and services). These challenges are
interconnected and the current regulatory assault is the single most
important aggravating factor to these circumstances.”

“Bitcoins
are an odd sort of commodity. They are not financial instruments. The value
fluctuates widely, in line with changing views regarding the overall
usefulness of the Bitcoin payment system and the speculative manias
surrounding such views. There is no financial logic behind Bitcoins’ face
value. In other words, if you like to gamble, this is a perfect asset. If you
are looking for an alternative monetary instrument, look elsewhere.”

“There
is a similar finding about communities where people describe their investment
success more generally, because people tend to brag about their success and
not brag about their losses. If you are not careful, all you hear is that
people are making tons of money.”

“Bitcoin is an
interesting idea, but I think their mechanism for regulating the
currency supply is fundamentally flawed. Because the Bitcoin supply
doesn't increase in proportion to the growth or use of Bitcoins,
there is a deflationary effect, creating an incentive for people to
hoard Bitcoins rather than spend them. Gresham's Law in economics
suggests that for a complementary currency to be successful, it needs
to have an inflationary effect that exceeds inflation in the national
currency.”

“Bitcoin
is a great concept, but there are too many obstacles to make it a reliable
and usable currency over the long term. Regulation, taxation, volatility and
diminishing returns for those who make money from it will result in the
long-term failure of this experiment.”

“So
the Bitcoin experience gives us a glimpse of Libertarian paradise: What life
would be like with as little government interference as possible, in a market
free of burdensome laws and taxes.Unfortunately, that experience looks like a
total nightmare. It's characterized by radical instability, chaos, the rise
of a boss-class of criminals who assassinate people they don't like, and a
mass handover of wealth to a minority even smaller than the 1% that currently
lauds it in the United States.”

“While the sheer
difficulty of mining assures Bitcoin users that there won't ever be a
massive supply shock in the digital market, the way that Bitcoins are
created causes one enormous problem. Primarily, it incentivizes
miners to hoard the currency upon receiving it. This is one of the
main causes of Bitcoin's price volatility (it's estimated that up to
25% of Bitcoins mined have never even entered the marketplace). The
only way to alleviate this issue is to mandate that miners have to
exchange all newly-mined Bitcoins for another currency of their
choice. Otherwise, volatility will end up killing this currency's
potential, and a group of Bitcoin miners will control the supply. Is
that really any better than a central bank?”

Paul Krugman - American economist and the winner of Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences

“So
far almost all of the Bitcoin discussion has been positive economics — can
this actually work? And I have to say that I’m still deeply unconvinced. To
be successful, money must be both a medium of exchange and a reasonably
stable store of value. And it remains completely unclear why Bitcoin should
be a stable store of value.”

"Bitcoin is the cautious expression of a
rebellious identity. Using Bitcoin is an effete act of rebellion, a week
resistance like wearing a hoodie or getting a tattoo that's well covered by
your work clothes."

“Placing
a ceiling on the value of gold is mining technology, and the prospect that if
its price gets out of whack for long on the upside a great deal more of it
will be created. Placing a ceiling on the value of the dollar is the Federal
Reserve’s role as actual dollar source, and its commitment not to allow
deflation to happen. Placing a ceiling on the value of Bitcoins is computer
technology and the form of the hash function… until the limit of 21 million Bitcoins
is reached. Placing a floor on the value of Bitcoins is… what, exactly?”

Brad DeLong - Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley

“There was plenty of ugliness to be found in the
markets this year. Ukranian and Venezuelan sovereign debt. High-yield,
energy-related corporate bonds. Argentine pesos. Russian rubles. Greek
stocks.But none of these investments has been as atrociously awful as
Bitcoin, the heavily hyped crypto-currency that stormed onto the financial
scene in the last few years, threatening to disrupt the cornerstone of global
finance that is fiat currency.”

“The
Bitcoin industry has been rife with scams and thefts, so it's hard to believe
that the currency will be able to sustain itself over the long term. Even
though there are some who claim Bitcoins are the currency of the future, I
just don't see it. It has also been linked to drug trafficking and illegal
gambling. I see it as a fad and nothing more, and as more people lose real money
because of the legal issues surrounding Bitcoin, I eventually see it fading
from existence.”

“Bitcoin
really needs to be broken down into two areas: viability as a currency and as
a trading vehicle. As a viable currency, I’m excited and fearful for it. I
love the thought of taking the power away from our government and the Fed’s
ability to print money into infinity. On the dark side of it, Bitcoins can be
used to hide large transactions from governments which really opens the door
to black market activities. It's far too young for me to get involved in
Bitcoin in my own life as I fear that global governments will try to shut it
down as they will be losing billions in tax revenue if Bitcoin gets really
big.”

Warren Buffett - American business magnate, investor and philanthropist

“At
this point, Bitcoin is neither a legitimate form of currency nor an
investment. Until it gains widespread acceptance and price stability, it will
never be a mainstream method of payment. And from an investing perspective,
Bitcoin's uncertain future and the lack of any meaningful fundamental metrics
make it a speculation at best, and gambling at worst.”

“Bitcoin
looks like it was designed as a weapon intended to damage central banking and
money issuing banks, with a Libertarian political agenda in mind—to damage
states ability to collect tax and monitor their citizen’s financial
transactions.”

Charles Stross - The author of six Hugo-nominated novels and winner of the 2005, 2010, and 2014 Hugo awards for best novella -- source --